The major function of absorbent articles such as diapers and adult incontinence briefs is to prevent body exudates from soiling, wetting, or otherwise contaminating clothing or other articles, such as bedding, that come in contact with the wearer. In recent years, disposable diapers such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,003 issued to Kenneth Barclay Buell on Jan. 14, 1975 have become very popular with the public and have generally replaced durable cloth absorbent articles because of their convenience and reliability. However, despite the effectiveness of such disposable absorbent articles, body exudates often still leak or are stored in the diaper such that the exudates soil and/or irritate the skin of the wearer.
The undesirable effects of leakage and/or improper containment are especially evident with regard to fecal matter deposited in the diaper. Feces contained in the diaper can harm the skin of the wearer over time, and feces, leaking from the diaper, almost invariably presents unpleasant messy clean-ups. Thus, several attempts have been made to add features to diapers such as barriers, pockets, spacers, transverse barriers, apertured topsheets and the like to limit the movement of the material across the topsheet and/or to better confine fecal matter in the diaper. However, such attempts have been generally unsuccessful due to their cost and complexity or due to their limited success in reducing the negative effects of the feces.
Although the present invention may be adapted to provide improved management of any bodily exudates, the embodiments described hereinbelow are especially suitable for controlling viscous fluid bodily wastes. Such viscous fluid bodily wastes include soft or runny feces, and the like, which are generally more viscous than urine but less viscous than normal solid adult feces. Viscous fluid bodily wastes are difficult to absorb and/or contain in conventional absorbent structures because the normal capillary forces which acquire and transport extremely low viscosity fluids like urine are insufficient to move such viscous fluid bodily wastes. Thus, the viscous fluid body wastes often remain on the topsheet of the article where they are generally unrestricted in movement and accessible to and in contact with the wearer's skin. Further, the fluid characteristics of the waste permit it to flow across the topsheet and sometimes leak out of the article. Accordingly, the special characteristics of viscous fluid bodily wastes need to be addressed by unique storage structures.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an absorbent structure with improved feces management properties. Further, it would be advantageous to provide an economical disposable absorbent article with the ability to minimize the negative effects of feces or other viscous fluid bodily waste on the wearer or the caregiver. It would also be advantageous to provide an absorbent article which is specifically designed to accept viscous fluid bodily wastes such as fecal material, especially relatively lower viscosity fecal material such as soft or runny feces. Also, it would be desirable to provide an absorbent article having sufficient effective capacity and retention capability to store feces deposited therein safely and cleanly away from the wearer's skin and/or clothing throughout the expected time of use.